picking locks
by annicaspoon
Summary: One slip-up on patrol and suddenly there's a messed up lock on her window and a smartass teenager on her couch. To be frank, this is definitely not where Artemis imagined her life to end up.


_The first chapter of a much larger piece, dedicated to my own Artemis for her birthday_

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><p>She can't remember if it was during a late night girl's talk in M'gann's room, or if it was among all of them; piled in the cave's living room after a late-running mission. However, she can remember the question that M'gann asked: Is there anything that you regret?<p>

Artemis can also remember her answer. No. Nothing. And that's how it'll always be.

But _oh_, if only she could change her answer now.

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><p>It's Brucely's barking that first tips her off. Brucely's always been a good boy; only barking when he's out of the apartment and playing around. Sure, he had moments as a puppy when he would bark at a tree branch tapping aginst the window, but generally, he's a quiet boy.<p>

Which makes his incessant barking from the other side of the door very, very troubling.

They send the tickle of goosebumps up the back of Artemis' neck, and she moves towards the door with her keys in one hand and her loaded crossbow in another. She makes a mental note to kick Jade's ass if it ends up just being her in there, and slowly, silently, opens the door.

Brucely has to have heard or smelt her, but he continues to bark, looking upwards and pawing at a table leg. Artemis hears a voice intercut the barks as she steps closer.

"Come on, doggy. Just shut up now. Come on. Here!" A paper napkin, mostly likely from the makeshift napkin holder in the centre of the table, is dropped on the floor at Brucely's feet. "Eat it! Go on! Stop barking and eat!"

The napkin is ignored, and Brucely rears up in an attempt to reach the intruder. At that point, Artemis rounds the corner, aiming the bolt towards the tabletop's centre.

Her appearance invites a clatter, and a mix between a shriek and a whisper. "Holy shit!"

The intruder that's crouching on the table can't be older than mid teens. There are multiple stains on her clothes and an unfinished braid on one side of her blonde hair. She looks at Artemis with wide eyes, holding out hands wearing fingerless, fraying gloves.

"You know those things are dangerous, right?" The kid says, backing towards the edge of the table. "Someone's gonna lose an eye. I don't wanna lose an eye!"

Artemis takes another step closer, and Brucely, finally satisfied, stops barking and smugly trots away from the table. "Who are you?"

"Uhm." The kid's face contorts. "Someone who's regretting the lack of accountability towards pet possibility?"

"What?"

Chipped nail polish points towards Brucely. "Dog. Didn't know you had one. Didn't…" She sighs and pulls at her hair. "Didn't even occur to me that you might have _any_ pets. My bad." She looks back to Artemis and steps off the table, being sure to edge away from Brucely. Artemis continues to hold the crossbow in her direction.

"You… don't remember me, do you?" Her head tilts to the side, and eyes dart around, searching Artemis' face. "I mean, probably not. I shouldn't really expect you to. You probably save like 16 lives every night, right? Just the busy-busy life of a superhero." Words fly out of the girl's mouth almost as fast as Bart's usual speech patterns, and her hands and fingers dart around, twisting and pulling and cracking.

The behavior sparks something in Artemis' memory, and she lowers the bow. Artemis imagines her with hair tied back in a high ponytail, dark red lips and a figure-hugging dress. She looked a lot older a few weeks ago, walking through side-streets in high heels and batting her eyelids at every passing stranger.

"You're the… 'Presley' girl, right?" Artemis asks. "That's what you called yourself?"

The girl shrugs. "People like Elvis. It's a helpful icebreaker."

"I don't." Artemis crouches down to pet Brucely. "And I'm not calling you Presley."

"Lame." The girl reaches for in her hair, grabbing the ends to finish it. "Will you call me Mia?"

Artemis scoffs. "Is _that_ your real name?"She receives another shrug. "Fine. Mia. How did you manage to find this place?"

Mia abandons the braid. "I sorta followed you? I mean, not _that_ much on the first night. Only like, a block or four. And then I followed you a bit more a few nights later. And then more. And then…you know. A little bit more."

"You…" Artemis frowns. "You managed to follow me all the way here, without me noticing?" The question draws a grin out of Mia.

"I know when I want to get noticed and when I don't."

"…okay. Then…" Artemis sighs. "_Why_ are you here?"

"Well." The hands start moving again, this time picking at nail polish. "You said to me that you better not find me out on the streets again, and to be honest, you kinda seem like the kind of person who probably has like, a superhero stalk list that you follow up on. I mean, maybe you aren't - but I didn't really wanna find out the hard way. So, I figured I should probably take your advice before you caught me again. And now I'm a little bit homeless. So uh, thanks."

"A little bit?" Artemis scoffs and moves towards the kitchen. She pulls a bag of Brucely's treats out of a drawer and drops one down to him, while Mia lingers behind the table, her back pressing into a corner. "And being out on the streets every night was?"

Mia pulls on her earlobe. "An approximate 60% chance that I'd end up with a bed for a few hours?" Artemis frowns, apparently noticeable enough for the kid to start back-pedalling. "Look, I'm not sure if you've been to a shelter before, but let me tell you: they're not all what they're cracked up to be. And even if they were, people tend to ask minors more questions than I wanna have to answer.

"I dunno." Mia looks down and watches her own feet shift on the floor. "I figured you might have a few little strings or connections that you could, you know." She makes a pulling motion with her fingers.

Artemis thinks back to the night when she first came across Mia, remembering with a sinking stomach that it was originally Roy's night to patrol. He had been nearly dressed for it when she swapped with him, her restless nerves begging her for a chance to go out and hit something.

She got herself into a lot of messes that night. All completely on her own.

But that doesn't mean that she's not going to try twist out a way to blame Roy for it.

"Look, Mia," she sighs and pulls her hairband out. "I'm not sure what you want to hear, but…I'm pretty sure any help I can get you isn't going to be as good as what you get from professionals." She looks at the girl that's almost completely backed into the corner, wringing her hands. "Come on," Artemis says, "we can go into the city… go look around for a place-"

"I saved your life!"

Brucely's head jerks up at the outburst. Artemis tries to continue her sentence, but a faster and more desperate voice drowns her own.

"I saved your life!" Mia stays near the corner, but she straightens up, lifting her chin and staring Artemis down. "If I hadn't knocked that guy down, he would've slit your throat. I saved your life, and that's kind of a big deal, and therefore you owe me in a pretty significant way." She continues to stare steadily as she curls her hands into tiny fists. "The way you can pay back your owe is by promising that I won't be taken to a shelter by you or anyone else."

Artemis growls. She should've kept pointing the crossbow at her. "Kid, I don't even know you. I can't just-"

"_Promise._"

Mia has edged forward a few feet, still keeping the table between her and Artemis, but far enough out to get a view of the apartment entrance. Artemis barely needs to see the girl's eyes darting towards the door to know what is going to happen if she doesn't make the promise.

"Fine," she sighs. "I promise." Mia relaxes, and her attention moves away from the door. "I've got a friend," Artemis says cautiously. "She's not a social worker or…anything like that. She's just someone who might know of a better option for you." She holds up her phone. "Is it alright with you if I go out to talk to her for a bit?"

"Is your dog going to try eat me again if you do?" Artemis snorts and walks out through the door. She closes it behind her, vaguely hearing a "That wasn't a no!" and the sound of a chair being pushed.

Artemis sighs and leans against the door once it's closed. Why her why her why her. She counts the rings from her phone's speaker; one, two, three four.

_"Hey Artemis!"_

"There's a smartass teenager in my apartment and it knows how to use blackmail. Help me."

The cheerful voice on the other end pauses. _"Oh? Well, you could probably send him up here if he's bothering you. Cassie's already decided she's sleeping over."_

Artemis laughs. "Actually, for once, it's not Bart."

_"I didn't think Tim knew where you lived."_

"It's not him either. It's…" Artemis runs a hand through her hair. "Some kid called Mia. I think, at least. That's what she told me. I came across her a few weeks ago when I was patrolling the Glades. She was…" Artemis can picture M'gann on the other end; head slightly tilted, soft frown, listening intently. "Actually, you don't need to know what she was doing. Fact is, she got caught up with some thugs, I took them down, she _may have_ saved my life during that time, and now she's managed to follow me to my apartment. As it turns out, she's way smarter than I gave her credit for."

_"Okay."_ M'gann says softly. _"So, what are you going to do with her?"_

Artemis sits on the floor, her back still leaning against the door. "I don't know. That's why I'm calling you. I mean, I can't let her go back out there. She must be only Bart's age. But she made me promise that I wouldn't take her to a shelter-"

_"Artemis. That's not what I was talking about."_

"What do you mean?"

_"She knows who you are. And where you live."_

Artemis freezes. She had thought about it at some point between her and Mia's conversation, but the idea had gotten lost once something else, something she had thought to be more important, had become apparent. "Come on, Meg. She's just a - maybe not that dumb - kid. I'm pretty sure she's not involved with anything that you're suggesting."

_"We've thought that about a few people, Artemis."_

Artemis stares at the railing in front of her and doesn't say anything.

_"Maybe…just keep an eye on her tonight. Don't let your guard down." _Artemis scoffs.

"She's a street kid. I wasn't planning on it."

_"Hmm. I can probably come over tomorrow, poke around to make sure she's as safe as you think."_

Artemis leans forward and frowns. "You're really suspicious of her, aren't you?"

_"Honestly Artemis, I'm more suspicious that you're not. You're normally the first to pick up on that stuff. What made this time different?"_

The constant fiddling. The tiny movements that drew her closer and closer to the corner of the room. The flicking gaze. Mostly masked within the mass of words coming out of her mouth and the cheeky, defiant attitude she gave off - but they still all led to one picture.

Artemis turns her head slightly to glance at the door behind her. "She was scared."

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><p>It probably wasn't the best idea to have called M'gann so late, as it turns out. Artemis finally gets off the call at close to two in the morning, and groans as she pulls herself off the floor and steps back into her apartment. The noises coming from the other side of the door had stopped soon after she began the call, and as she enters the room again, she is only greeted by a sleepy Brucely. He bumps her leg to ensure she's actually there before slinking off to his bed.<p>

Artemis almost expects to find Mia gone, having gotten sick of waiting and running off again, her tracking and talking for nothing. However, before Artemis is able to think about possibly searching for her, she spots a curled ball of ratty clothes and blonde hair lying on the couch.

Mia wakes immediately as the front door clicks closed. She sits up, rubbing at her eyelids. "Shit," she mutters, "sorr-"

"Don't bother." Artemis walks towards her, grabbing a blanket from under the coffee table and tossing it towards the girl. "The couch doesn't have a bed in it, so you're just going to have to sleep on it like that. Brucely will probably wake you up in the morning and try to get you to let him out. Don't do it. Just ignore him for five minutes and he'll give up."

"We can figure something out tomorrow. One night isn't going to hurt anybody. Agreed?" Mia nods. "But one thing," Artemis adds, face becoming stern. "If you wake me up in the morning at all, the promise is off. Got that?"

Mia smirks. "Got it." Artemis reaches for the light switch and turns them off. She begins to walk to her bedroom, hearing a soft thanks from the couch.


End file.
